Time To Play by KA Richardson (free children's ebooks online .txt) 📕

sounded all around the car. She couldn’t get out now even if she wanted to.

Ryhope, Sunderland – 4 November

Nita felt ill. Her nose was running, and her body ached and shivered with cold, but at the same time she was sweating. It felt like she was back in the container again.

She didn’t know where she was, but it wasn’t home.

Nita didn’t know what it was they’d been injecting into her, but it made everything OK, at least until it wore off. When that happened it was like a raw hunger that wouldn’t go away, and coupled with the horrible flu she seemed to have caught, she felt like death warmed up. In the room she’d been in, they kept the drugs coming fairly regularly so her withdrawal hadn’t progressed beyond that and she wondered when this man would give her the injection her body craved.

She glanced down at her arm, and without realising what she was doing, she started scratching at the tiny scabs left behind from the needles; her nails ripping into her skin and causing red welts to appear. It gave her a focus, and she could feel the pain. In an effort to stop the shaking, she scratched harder.

The car she was in suddenly pulled to a stop and the man got out. He opened the door for her, and she took the hand he offered. He’s going to hurt me, like the other man.

But even that thought didn’t make her stay in the car. She knew that however he hurt her; he would give her the drugs first. And that was what she needed. Anything else she could handle.

The man led her down a path to a building and silently pushed her through the door.

A sudden prick of fear invaded her senses. This room didn’t feel right. It smelt like bleach and the walls were covered in grey material. She racked her brains to try to remember where she’d seen similar material before, but the location eluded her. She saw the cage, the line of tools hanging on the wall, and the chair with wrist and ankle ties standing in the middle of the room and knew she’d made a mistake.

Wherever here was, it was no better than the last place. If anything, it was worse.

Nita cried out and pulled back towards the door.

She hadn’t even noticed the man locking it as they entered.

She opened her mouth to scream but gasped as he suddenly pulled her close and clamped a hand over her mouth.

‘Shhh, it’s time to play,’ he whispered in her ear.

Nita whimpered, the shaking stopping momentarily as panic threatened to overwhelm her. She struggled against his hold, but she was weak from lack of food. There was no chance of her escaping his grasp.

He manoeuvred her towards a metal framed cage that lay in the corner and she felt the hot tears start to fall down her cheeks. What is going on? What does he want?

She tried to stop him pushing her through the cage door, but he roughly rammed her through the door. Nita cried out in pain as her arm caught on the side, but he ignored her and slammed the door shut with her inside.

Shaking the cage door, she screamed, her tears running freely down her face. He had turned away, but hearing her shaking the cage, he faced her once more. He was angry, and Nita was afraid. She backed away from the cage door and stopped when her back hit the rear frame.

She watched as he lowered a flap on the cage and pushed a couple of sandwiches and bottles of water inside. They would satiate her, but they wouldn’t even touch the hunger she knew wasn’t for food. Deciding to change her tactics, she approached the door more calmly.

‘Pakiusap po,’ said Nita, trying to show the man a shaky smile. It meant please. Please anything. Please let me out, please give me a needle, please don’t hurt me, just please.

But he didn’t understand.

Ryhope, Sunderland – 4 November

He hadn’t understood the mutterings from her mouth, but he knew the meaning. She was begging. Pleading with him in her own language not to hurt her. For a moment, he felt compassion. He knew how she felt, she was trapped. She couldn’t get out. She was scared. But his compassion faded. The only way for her to deal with the pain life would throw at her was to learn now.

And he was the one to teach her. He had to be.

He picked up the large, wrapped piece of polythene from the corner of the room, adjusting to accommodate the weight of the dead girl now in his arms. He grunted as her arm slipped free of the polythene wrapping, and hearing a loud gasp from the cage, he knew the latest girl had seen.

Oh well, by the time I’m through she’ll be able to cope with anything. She’ll get through life and never have to worry about anything. Not like me.

He lugged the heavy wrap out to his car and shoved her into the boot.

It was too early yet. If he left now, he would be seen. And he didn’t have time today to travel to the place he normally placed his girls.

He could go later – no one would see. But he didn’t think he would be able to. He had a new girl to look after now.

Suddenly he realised he knew just the place for this girl. Humming to himself, he turned and went back into the house. It was time for supper.

 

Chapter Nine

Outskirts of Hetton-le-Hole – 5 November

E lvie heard a noise outside the car and stilled, holding her breath in case someone opened the car door. She was bitterly cold, the thin blanket doing little to warm her up, and she was shivering